Pastor Ituah Ighodalo and his kids Unuakemonyi Olajumoke Ighodalo and Ehizenan Akintunde Ighodalo cover the January issue of Media Room Hub Magazine.

In his interview with the publication, he shares insights into the economic and social consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic in the country and also gives details about his late wife Ibidunni Ighodalo, life after her death among other things in this no holds barred interview.

Read excerpts from the interview below:

Last year we all saw what happened in the world from Covid 19 to different other tragic stories, every day on social media we saw how a boy killed his girlfriend or plucked out her eye for rituals. What advice do you have for Nigerian youths generally?

Well, the world and especially Nigeria is really going through difficult time, the desire to succeed, the desire to make money quickly, the desire to be somebody or the other, the desire for acknowledgement, the surprising super stardom that is coming to our nation especially with all manner of entertainment, turning themselves into rockstar and living one lifestyle or the other. The weak economy is also putting people under a lot of pressure. The environment is making life difficult and therefore people are doing things they normally would not have done. My advice to them is that they should know who they really are and they should find comfort in who they really are. They should not try to be like another person, you need to discover yourself.

Secondly, we need to find a way to make our youth know right from wrong, one of the challenges of Nigeria today is that there are no more values, ethics has gone through the window, people don’t know right from wrong, all people think is that we must survive and we must live for another day. There must be a way of teaching people what is right and wrong, drugs are wrong, ostentatious lifestyle is wrong, living beyond your means is wrong, pre-marital and extra marital sex is wrong. Insulting adults or being rude to people is wrong, all kind of dangerous conversation on media, it could be on social media is wrong, driving car on the wrong side of the road is wrong. Corruption and bribery are wrong but these days in Nigeria, everything goes, we need to reset the nation as it were.

Thirdly, it is to let them know that there is hope, there is hope in spite of what they see. Things like hard work or sensible work is still very worthy and that at the end of the day, it is these fundamentals that make a person and nation thrive. You must imbibe the fundamentals of doing things right, the bible says righteousness exalt a nation and they need to know that there is God, the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

What are you learning from being a single parent?

There is nothing that I didn’t know when my wife was around, most of what I am doing, I did it when she was around because I was going to be a handsome father, but now I have intensified it to compensate for the thing my wife would have done. My wife helped me, she trained me well and I also helped myself because I wanted to be a handsome father, to be as involved in their life as I could and we had a very good partnership and relationship, but there are some things she used to do, but now I do them with joy. It’s a privilege to have them in my life, it’s a privilege for me to be part of their life.